Empty yourself

Notable sermon

Source: Alamosa Christian Church, minute 21

While he was on Earth, Jesus was fully human and also fully God. It's hard for a human mind to wrap around that: to be fully like us and to be fully like God, the Creator of the universe. But in John 10:30 Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." So the only way Jesus could finish his earthly mission was to empty himself of his rightful glory and become the lowliest servant of all of us.

For us to fulfill our mission in this life, we also must follow Christ and empty ourselves of our human desire for privilege and power. Or to put it another way: we must empty ourselves of ourselves.

This is something we must do every day, sometimes multiple times a day. We may need to pray and ask God to help us empty us of our earthly preferences and privileges that are naturally part of our flesh. In Philippians 2:5-11 the Bible says:

"Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Although he was in the form of God and equal with God, he did not take advantage of this equality. Instead, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, by becoming like other people, by having a human appearance. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, death on a cross. This is why God has given him an exceptional honor: the name honored above all other names. So that at the name of Jesus, everyone in heaven and on Earth below will kneel and confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Emptying ourselves is one way to look at it. Another biblical way of looking at it is dying to ourselves. That's also what this passage talks about. Dying to ourselves, to allow our human will and our desires to be killed or crucified along with Jesus. Another passage for you, Galatians 2:20:

"I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

So, the first passage says Jesus emptied himself. The second passage says he literally died to himself—was crucified. We are also crucified to the desires of our flesh. He literally died to his human desire because of his love for us. We deserve that death as punishment for our sins, but he took that death on himself. He took our place.

We now will take communion as reminder of this. We pray: Lord God, we thank you for this to help remind us of you. Help us to do it with a reverent spirit, Lord, and to do it to your glory. We thank you for giving your life for us. Lord, help us empty ourselves of ourselves, to die to ourselves and live for you Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11:23-25: "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread and when he had broken it he gave thanks and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.'"

We pray: Father, again we thank you so much. Lord, as we look to this week ahead we think of all the things we face... at work, at school, in our personal lives, our health. None of this is possible, Lord, without your broken body on the cross, Lord, your shed blood for us to give us new life. By your strikes we are healed, Lord, by your wound we are healed. We thank you. Help us have that attitude in Christ Jesus, Lord, emptying ourselves and dying to ourselves, Lord, daily to follow you. In Jesus Christ we pray. Amen."